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Zanu-PF reveals its cards

IOL

July 25 2008 at
12:43PM

By Nelson Banya

Harare - Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe's ruling party will not accept a power-sharing deal that fails
to recognise his re-election or seeks to reverse his land reform programme,
a state-owned newspaper said on Friday.

The conditions, which
the Herald newspaper said were agreed at a Zanu-PF politburo meeting earlier
this week, could dim prospects for a deal at negotiations between Mugabe's
party and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.

The talks began on Thursday under South African mediation.
They aim to break the deadlock about Mugabe's victory in a June 27 run-off
election, boycotted by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai because of violence and
condemned by Western nations.

"The meeting noted that there has
to be a figure who appoints the all-inclusive government envisaged in the
Memorandum of Understanding signed by the three parties on Monday," the
Herald said.

"And that figure is President Mugabe who won the
run-off."

The newspaper also said Zanu-PF would never agree to a
national unity government that sought to reverse Mugabe's controversial
seizure of thousands of white-owned firms to give to landless
blacks.

Critics say the farm seizures helped wreck the once
prosperous economy and bring food shortages and inflation now running at
2-million percent, but the opposition has said it would not go back on the
land seizures.

African governments see a national unity government
as the only way to reverse the economic meltdown and avert an escalation of
political violence in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai withdrew from the
election run-off after attacks on his supporters by pro-Mugabe militia in
which he says 120 activists were killed. Mugabe, in power since independence
from Britain in 1980, blames the opposition for the bloodshed.

Tsvangirai won a first round vote in March but failed to win the absolute
majority required to avoid a second round.

The MDC leader had
demanded that the government recognise his victory in the March poll and
halt all violence against the opposition as pre-conditions for talks. He
agreed on Monday to go ahead with negotiations without any iron-clad
guarantees.

A spokesperson for Tsvangirai's MDC on Friday said the
party would not accept any negotiations based on the June 27
result.

"We have a pact not to talk to the media, but if that is
their (Zanu-PF) position, it is unfortunate for the country. Our position is
clear that June 27 is controversial and it, therefore, falls away," the
MDC's Nelson Chamisa told Reuters.

"It is not admissible as a
parameter guiding the engagement," Chamisa added.

South African
President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mediating the Zimbabwe crisis since
2007, has said the Zimbabwean parties face a tight two-week deadline to
conclude the talks, which are expected to be tense.

The parties
sharply disagree over how long a national unity government should remain in
power. Tsvangirai's MDC wants fresh elections held as soon as possible,
while Mugabe wants to carry on with his new five-year mandate.

Laurence Caromba, a researcher at the Centre for International Political
Studies at the University of Pretoria, said the idea of allowing Mugabe and
his Zanu-PF to remain in power may be unacceptable to many
Zimbabweans.

"South African mediators hope to square this
circle by advocating for a government of national unity, but this idea
flatly ignores the wishes of the Zimbabwean people," Caromba said in an
analysis of the crisis.

Zimbabwe talks go well though many
Zimbabweans feel betrayed and some violence continues

International Herald Tribune

The Associated
PressPublished: July 25, 2008

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa:
Power-sharing talks between Zimbabwe's rival political parties were
proceeding well Friday, a South African official said, although violence
continued and hundreds of opposition supporters remained jailed.

Both
sides are under pressure: the opposition from fear of more state-sponsored
violence and longtime President Robert Mugabe from widening Western
sanctions. The United States on Friday broadened its sanctions against
targeted Zimbabweans and their companies, calling Mugabe's an "illegitimate"
and "brutal" regime.

South African presidential spokesman Mukoni
Ratshitanga said the Zimbabwean talks got "fully under way" on Thursday and
were "continuing and they are proceeding well"

Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF party and Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change have committed themselves to negotiating "an inclusive government"
within two weeks.

The Zimbabwe parties also agreed to negotiate a slew of
other issues, including revival of the shattered economy and a new
constitution - but most points already had been negotiated at talks that
broke off in January, ahead of presidential and legislative
elections.

The biggest obstacle is agreeing on who will lead a new
government."The opposition wants to be in the driving seat. The only way for
the economy to be handled is for Mugabe to withdraw altogether, and I don't
see that happening," said John Makumbe, a political analyst at the
University of Zimbabwe. "I see the whole thing collapsing or, if a deal is
reached, it will look so bad no one will accept it."

But the
resilient Mugabe, who has survived years of attempts to oust him even by his
own party, insists that he should head any government.

Tsvangirai says he
won the most votes at the only legitimate election in March. But he did not
win enough to avoid a runoff, from which he belatedly withdrew because of
mounting state violence against his supporters.

Mugabe ran alone in the
June runoff and declared himself victor, though most of the world sees that
election as a sham.

Under immense pressure, with even some African
leaders declaring they did not consider him Zimbabwe's elected president,
Mugabe on Monday signed an agreement with the opposition to hold
talks.

Makumbe, the analyst, said Monday's handshake between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai has left militant followers of both leaders feeling betrayed.
Victims of violence feel Tsvangirai is "supping with the devil," and should
not have signed before all his supporters were released.

Tsvangirai's
party says some 2,000 of its activists remain jailed on trumped up charges
of violence and inciting violence. Three newly elected legislators are out
on bail on various charges, including the opposition's chief negotiator at
the talks, secretary-general Tendai Biti. He is accused of treason, a charge
that carries the death sentence. Seven other opposition legislators are in
hiding, on a wanted list for spurious allegations including rape and
fraud.

Makumbe said the prospect of Mugabe and Tsvangirai sharing power
is bitterly opposed by military commanders backing Mugabe and militants
responsible for attacks on the opposition, who now fear
retribution.

Monday's agreement also calls for an end to the political
violence in which more than 150 people have been killed. Doctors who have
been documenting the deaths and injuries say it's too early to tell: Most
violence is committed in rural areas and, with roadblocks and other
difficulties, it is taking victims up to two weeks to reach hospitals in
Harare, the capital.

One opposition supporter who arrived at the Avenues
Clinic in Harare this week, suffering complications from a beating
perpetrated in rural Zimbabwe two weeks ago, died on Friday, according to
the doctors, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of
attacks.

An opposition official admitted to the clinic this week had been
beaten up by ZANU-PF militants at the weekend when he went home, thinking
the violence was over, the doctors' group said.

Makumbe said the
violence already had diminished after the runoff. "It served its purpose for
that election but its always remains an option for ZANU-PF," Makumbe
said.

Looking to put pressure on Mugabe, the United States and European
Union broadened sanctions banning travel and freezing assets of people and
companies considered to support Mugabe's regime.

The United States on
Friday added 17 entities and one individual to its existing list targeting
132 people and 36 farms and companies.

On Tuesday, the European Union
added another 37 people and companies, increasing its targeted list to
168.

"No regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from
the international community without consequences," President George W. Bush
said in a statement.

US Expands Sanctions Against 'Illegitimate' Zimbabwe
Government

VOA

By David GollustState Department25
July 2008

President Bush Friday ordered expanded U.S.
sanctions against what he termed the "illegitimate" government of Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe. At the same time, the United States is offering the
country aid if there is a negotiated end to the country's political
conflict. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

The
Bush administration had promised to tighten unilateral U.S. sanctions
against Zimbabwe after a draft U.N. Security Council resolution for
international sanctions was vetoed earlier this month by Russia and
China.

An announcement from the U.S. Treasury Department said 17
Zimbabwean commercial entities and one individual, an Omani businessman with
close ties to President Mugabe, are being added to a U.S. sanction list that
already includes among others, Mr. Mugabe, his wife, and key
associates.

Several government-owned or controlled companies are on the
new list including the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, the
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and the Agriculture Development Bank
of Zimbabwe.

The Treasury Department said Mr. Mugabe, senior
officials and cronies had used the entities to illegally siphon cash and
foreign exchange from the Zimbabwean people.

Treasury officials said
the Omani national, Thamer Bin Saeed Al-Shafari and a company he owns - Oryx
National Resources - had enabled Mr. Mugabe and senior officials to derive
personal benefit from mining ventures in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo.

In a White House statement, President Bush said the action against
what he termed the "illegitimate" Mugabe government is a direct result of
its continued politically-motivated violence despite international appeals,
and its continued ban on activity by non-governmental aid groups that could
help the country's "suffering and vulnerable" people.

Mr. Bush said
no regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the
international community without consequence.

But the U.S. administration
also took note of efforts begun this week among Mr. Mugabe and his political
rivals, including opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, to negotiate an end
to the political conflict spawned by the disputed presidential run-off
election in June.

State Department Acting Spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos,
echoing earlier White House remarks, said the United States would be ready
to come to the assistance of a Zimbabwean coalition
government:

"Should ongoing talks in South Africa between Mugabe's regime
and the Movement for Democratic Change result in a new government that
reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people, we stand ready to provide a
substantial assistance package, development aid, and normalization with
international financial institutions," he said.

Gallegos said the
Bush administration in the meantime is continuing humanitarian aid to
Zimbabwe, authorizing another two and a half million dollars in emergency
funds to assist Zimbabweans displaced by ongoing political
violence.

U.S. food and health assistance will also continue.

The
steps by the Bush administration followed a similar broadening of Zimbabwe
sanctions by the European Union, which announced Tuesday its is adding 37
new individuals and companies to an existing list of more than
130.

The Treasury Department sanctions imposed Friday freeze any
assets the Zimbabwean firms may have in financial institutions under U.S.
jurisdiction. Additionally, U.S. citizens are prohibited from conducting any
business with them.

Bush executive order targets Mugabe's
cronies

President
George W. Bush signed an executive order expanding sanctions against the
Government of Zimbabwe Friday morning.

The executive order focuses on
targeting individuals and entities who support the regime of Robert
Mugabe.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC) designated seventeen entities and one individual who will be
targeted by the new sanctions as a result of their support for the Mugabe
regime. Several major entities on the list include the Minerals Marketing
Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp.
(ZMDC), and the Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe

The only
individual on the list is Thamer Bin Saeed Ahmed Al-Shanfari, an Omani who
works closely with Mugabe and whose company, Oryx Natural Resources, allows
Mugabe and his officials to benefit from mining in the Democratic Republic
of Congo.

OFAC Director Adam Szubin said, "The U.S. is imposing further
sanctions against ... these supporters. These actions send a clear warning
to those who would protect Mugabe and his assets at the expense of the
Zimbabwean people."

Bush said the executive order is "a direct result
of the Mugabe regime's continued politically-motivated violence,
disregarding calls from the Southern African Development Community, the
African Union and the United Nations to halt the attacks ... No regime
should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the international
community without consequences."

If negotiations between Mugabe and
Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement of Democratic Change, result in a new
government that "reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people," Bush promised
the United States would provide a significant assistance
package.

Bush also authorized the use of up to $2.5 million to help
refugees and asylum seekers fleeing political violence and economic crisis
in Zimbabwe. The money will come from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and
Migration Assistance Fund.

Political violence has gripped the country
since the March 29 elections this year. Tsvangirai took 47.9 percent of the
vote compared to Mugabe's 43.2 percent, but Mugabe refused to step down
after the election. A second round of voting was scheduled for June 27 but
Tsvangirai withdrew a week before the election, citing threats against his
supporters.

In addition to the widespread political violence, Zimbabwe
has crippling inflation rates that reached 2,200,000 percent as of July
2008. In May 2008, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was forced to issue new
bearer checks in the denominations of $5 billion, $25 billion and $50
billion. As of the beginning of July, the Economist reported that $25
billion ZWD was worth $1 USD.

Other companies on the list include the
Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Co. (ZISCO), the Industrial Development Corporation
of Zimbabwe, the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe, Zimre Holdings
Ltd, Operation Sovereign Legitimacy -- a commercial arm of the Zimbabwean
army, Divine Homes, and COMOIL Ltd. Also on the list is ZB Financial
Holdings Ltd. and four of its subsidiaries: ZB Bank Ltd (Zimbank), ZB
Holdings Ltd., Intermarket Holdings Ltd., and Scotfin Ltd.

'Abuse must end for talks to be successful'

IOL

July 25 2008 at 06:59PM

By Robert Evans

Geneva -
Violence and human rights abuses must end in Zimbabwe if talks on a
power-sharing pact between government and opposition are to have any chance
of success, a coalition of world Christian bodies said on Friday.

It also called for a "genuine restoration of the rule of law" and for
justice for the survivors of election violence.

"We believe
that the will of the people should be the fundamental basis on which to
ground negotiations," a letter from the coalition, including the
Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC), declared.

It said the
talks between President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), under way in South Africa,
should restore "peace, prosperity, dignity and the rule of
law."

The letter, made public by the WCC, declared that the
churches and Christian movements signing it "are appalled by reports of
continuing violence if many parts of the country, particularly in the rural
areas."

It added: "All forms of violence, harassment, intimidation
and torture must cease immediately to provide an environment truly conducive
for peaceful negotiations."

The WCC said its letter was sent on
Thursday to South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, who is chairing the talks
in Pretoria, to Mugabe, and to the two leaders of the fractious MDC, Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.

It called on them to shape an
agreement "that rejects impunity but allows true reconciliation and
healing."

The churches voiced regret there were no representatives
of civil society at the talks and that none of the negotiating teams
included a woman.

The coalition's letter was signed by leaders
of the WCC, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the World Student
Christian Federation, the World Young Women's Christian Association, and the
World Alliance of Young Men's Christian Associations.

Three of
the five leaders are themselves Africans.

Earlier this month,
Zimbabwe's Christian community rejected Mugabe's proclaimed victory over
Tsvangirai in the second round of presidential elections, saying the vote
did not give "authentic expression" to the will of the people.

After leading Mugabe in the first round, Tsvangirai pulled out of the
run-off, arguing that amid violence and killings widely blamed on the
ZANU-PF he could not put his supporters lives any more at risk.

Zimbabwe's misguided talks

International Herald Tribune

By Mukoma
Wa Ngugi Published: July 25, 2008

As the Zimbabwean ruling
and opposition parties finally come to the negotiation table, it looks like
the only possible outcome is one that will allow Robert Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai to share power. But a power-sharing agreement that brings about a
"Government of National Unity," or a transitional authority, will in fact be
undermining the most basic and important principle of democracy: the
vote.

Western liberal democracy is based on the social contract, which
for theorists such as Jean Jacques Rousseau bound the state to managing and
fulfilling the people's general will. Failure was grounds for new
leadership.

For modern day Western democracies, the social contract
is fulfilled through the vote. Take the vote out of democracy and the
contract is nullified. That is what Mugabe did when he used violence to
steal the election.

Because a government of national unity elevates the
state above the will of the people, it is antithetical to democracy itself.
The call by the Bush administration, the European Union, the United Nations
and the African Union for a such a government in Zimbabwe is a threat to the
growth of democracy in Africa.

To understand what a government of
national unity means, consider how it differs from a coalition government.
In a coalition government the winning party finds that it does not have a
majority of seats in the legislature after free and fair elections. It then
invites other political parties to join with it in the interest of passing
laws and governing. A coalition government is formed after democratic
elections through constitutional means. By contrast, a government of
national unity, where the belligerent government and a power-hungry
opposition share power, is formed precisely because democracy itself has
been sabotaged through electoral theft, violence and threat of civil
war.

In Zimbabwe, as was the case in Kenya earlier this year, a
government of unity is being pushed as an emergency measure to stop violence
and a spiral down toward civil war. After peace is restored, the thinking
goes, truth and reconciliation commissions, constitutional reforms, and
finally democracy, will follow.But this is a pipe dream. A government
that does not respect the people's vote will not concede power down the
line. And an opposition that does not stand up for the people, and for
democracy when it matters most, is easily appeased with a nice chunk of the
national cake.

With democracy conceded to expediency, the ground is set
for future civil strife and impunity. A Kenyan government minister from the
former opposition party was recently caught on national TV in a fit of
anger, claiming "his men" had killed over 600 people during the ethnic
electoral violence. He was not admitting guilt; he was in fact threatening
his political opponents. Nothing has happened to him.

Corruption and
underhanded political deals continue in Kenya. Already there have been calls
for a general amnesty for the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing. The Truth
and Reconciliation Commission that will be formed is more likely to forgive
and forget. It is back to the usual business of bad leadership - at the
world's insistence that expediency take the place of
democracy.

African caricature democracies are fast becoming
acceptable because we have come to expect and demand much less from Africa.
Instead of doing the hard work of real democracy, it is much easier to
create a caricature of it. We have to begin wanting for Africa what we want
for the rest of the world - and not accept solutions for Africa that we
would reject elsewhere.

In the long run, it is better for the United
States, the European Union, the African Union and the United Nations to
demand a free and fair re-run of the disputed elections in Zimbabwe than to
let authoritarianism fester in the folds of caricature democracy. Rather
than legitimize the short-circuiting of democracy, these world institutions
should boldly declare that the only acceptable solution is one that reflects
the will of the people, and let that be the last stand, across the
board.

Yes, there will be much more violence in the short term. But the
quick caricature democracies sprouting all over Africa are not able to deal
with the myriad of problems facing their countries, and bitter, vindictive
and more vicious violence looms in the future. Worse still, a tradition of
respecting the vote and democratic traditions is being postponed
indefinitely.

True enough, democracy is not everything, and can be
used by the state and political elite to suppress the general will of the
people; but citizens can also use democracy to protect or fight for their
rights. It is a starting point.

Ultimately, it is the societies that
have the tradition of respecting democratic institutions that survive
terrible leaders, because the institutions serve as guiding posts in the
worst of times. Africa needs this tradition so that it can survive its bad
leaders and flourish under good leadership. Quick political fixes that take
Africa further from this, even with the short term promise of peace, sets up
for more Congos and Somalias in the near future.

Mukoma Wa Ngugi is
author of "Hurling Words at Consciousness" and a political columnist for the
BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.

Clampdown on opposition and media continues while talks are underway

By
Violet Gonda25 July 2008

Concern is growing as to why the negotiators
continue to talk when the original conditions to begin talks have been
ignored. Events on the ground show there is no political will on the part of
the Mugabe regime to change, despite agreeing to negotiate a settlement with
the MDC. Abductions of opponents continue, teachers are being forced by
soldiers to attend pungwes (rallies), radio stations are still being jammed,
and websites are being hacked.

It's reported a driver and an
assistant to MDC Senator Samuel Tsungirirai Muzerengwa were abducted in
Buhera South on Thursday, and the MP for the area Naison Nemadziwa has been
forced to flee. MDC spokesperson for Manicaland Pishai Muchauraya claims the
activists were abducted by soldiers and militia led by a Colonel Morgan
Mzilikazi of the Zimbabwe National Army. Muchauraya said Rusape police have
not been helpful, and the whereabouts of the MDC activists are still
unknown.

Meanwhile, prominent lawyer Advocate Eric Matinenga said he
still cannot go back to his own constituency in Buhera West as a result of
the tense situation there. Speaking on the programme Hot Seat Matinenga
said: "People are starving, people are living in fear. That is what you must
address now, before you address even what form this transitional arrangement
is going to take. If you are not doing that you are not negotiating on
behalf of the people of Zimbabwe."

The MDC says over 1500 activists
are still in jail, and militia camps remain operational. Raymond Majongwe,
the Secretary General of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, said
teachers in rural areas are being forced to attend rallies by ZANU-PF
soldiers, the PTUZ offices in Gokwe are still closed, and staff have been
chased away by war veterans. Majongwe said in some parts of the country,
like at Chidohwa Primary School in Makoni East, youth militia are still seen
walking with AK47 rifles.

Many people are scared to go back to their
homes because their safety has not been assured. Matinenga, who is also one
of Morgan Tsvangirai's lawyers, said ZANU-PF should be withdrawing the army
from the rural areas since it controls the state machinery. But there seems
to be no concession on the part of the regime while the negotiations are
taking place. Media outlets have also borne the brunt of state sponsored
repression.

Radio stations are still being jammed using jamming equipment
supplied by China, and websites are being hacked. The latest casualty is
ZWNEWS, one of the leading websites on Zimbabwe.

The editor Alan
Doyle was forced to put up a notice on his website on Friday saying:
'Visitors to ZWNEWS.com over recent days will have noticed disruption to
normal service. This is because hackers, based in, or at least routed
through, China have damaged the site.'

Doyle told SW Radio Africa, "I am
not the only one. I believe a couple of weeks ago the Zimbabwe Times went
down and it's no secret that they have been blocking radio stations, have
been forcing people to take down their satellite dishes and to hand in their
transistor radios, and they have hiked the import duties on foreign
publications."

Keeping
up the pressure on Zimbabwe

In recent days it has become clear the the
chaotic Zim economy is now one of the main drivers for meaningful change,
with the regime at last unable to source the paper required to print its
rapidly increasing requirement for new 100 billion notes and beyond. Indeed,
there is now the very real prospect of the regime being unable to pay its
staff - be they military, police, essential services
etc.

Furthermore, Jura, an Austrian company has been identified as the
source of the software to design and create new notes urgently required.
Below are the contact details of some of the key players at Jura as well as
other key opinion formers within Austria, who should be prevailed upon to
stop assisting the regime to continue to churn out increasingly worthless
notes.

At this critical time, with mediation talks continue in Pretoria,
we must ensure that pressure on companies like Jura and others that are
involved with the regime is increased, by highlighting their impact on
sustaining the indefensible. Please do what you
can.

6Country:AustriaName:Gusenbauer,
AlfredJob title:Federal Chancellor i.e. PM/presidentEmail
1:alfred.gusenbauer@bka.gv.atTelephone 1:+43/1/53115-0Physical
Address:Federal Chancellery - Bundeskanzleramt Ballhausplatz 2 1014 Vienna
AustriaWebsite
address:http://www.austria.gv.at/site/3327/Default...Additional
information:The Federal Chancellor presides over the Federal Government. The
Federal President appoints the Federal Chancellor and, on the latter's
recommendation, the other members of the Federal Government. The Deputy
Chancellor is empowered to deputise for the Federal Chancellor in all his
functions. In the event that both the Federal Chancellor and Deputy
Chancellor are unable to perform their duties, the Federal President names a
member of the Federal Government to deputise for the Federal Chancellor. The
Federal Chancellor countersigns the federal legislation certified by the
Federal President. If the Federal President is incapacitated, all of his
functions are transferred to the Federal Chancellor for a period of twenty
days.[738]

Uneasy
time for Mugabe and it shows

THESE days, Zimbabwe's self-elected head of state, Robert
Mugabe, bears a haunted and haggard look, his sunken cheeks and sagging face
giving him the authentic visage of the 84-year old man that he
is.

Mugabe is well-known for his vanity which has manifested itself in
his determined fight against the vagaries of time. This has allegedly
involved a self-imposed regimen of yoga, a special diet, and if street talk
is to be believed, regular sessions with Chinese doctors who are said to
"pump him up" when ever he seems to sag physically or needs extra energy to
undertake gruelling tasks such as election campaigning.

Mugabe always
dyes his thinning hair jet black, meaning that Zimbabweans have never seen
the man who has controlled their destiny for almost 30 years as the
white-haired great-grandfather he is in terms of chronological age. Mugabe
has often described himself as "a young old man" and with his young family,
forceful oration and physical agility which enabled him until recently to
strut up the steps when boarding a plane, he must have believed that he
could go on for ever.

Of late, however, events have suddenly and
dramatically conspired to disabuse him of any notions that he is invincible,
beyond reproach and immortal. He is learning very rapidly that the best laid
plans can go wrong and that according to the book of Proverbs in the Bible,
man may make his plans but "God directs his steps".After the brutal
retributive violence he unleashed against the people of Zimbabwe following
his March 29 electoral defeat and in the run up to the June 27 sham that he
is failing to pass off as a presidential election, Mugabe probably thought
by now he would be safely ensconced in State House as the legitimate
president of the country without a care in the world, whether the electorate
liked it or not.

But the sight of him last week flanked by Arthur
Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai at a ceremony to sign a memorandum of
understanding as a basis for negotiations to form a government of national
unity restored the faith of many Zimbabweans in the saying that what goes
around comes around. The veneer of Mugabe's status as a sacred cow on
account of his liberation war credentials was shattered when, first, African
election observer teams condemned the June 27 fiasco and then the African
Union followed suit shortly afterwards at its summit in Egypt. It has been
downhill for Mugabe since then and despite his fighting talk and displays of
feigned bravado, even he must acknowledge that the tide has turned
irreversibly against him.Adding to Mugabe's domestic worries is a
development he must have believed would never occur as long as he was in
office, hence his ruthless determination to cling to power at any cost,
including the bankrupting of the country, the crushing of dissent and the
brutalization and butchering of opponents. I refer here to the chilling
message sent out to Mugabe and other tyrants throughout Africa and the world
by International Criminal Court prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Out of the
blue, when Mugabe thought he had every thing down to a T, the ICC prosecutor
has instituted moves to prosecute a sitting president, Omar al-Bashir of
Sudan, for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The
development is reported to have rattled al-Bashir, who like his Zimbabwean
counterpart was confident that he could perpetrate abuses and atrocities
with impunity as long as he remained in office, which would guarantee him
immunity against prosecution.

The announcement of Moreno-Ocampo's plans
to apply for an international warrant of arrest for the Sudanese dictator to
be sent to The Hague for trial has sent the al-Bashir propaganda machinery
into over -drive in a bid to show why his indictment is unfair despite his
having previously exhibited imperviousness with respect to the Darfur
conflict. It is on public record that the Sudanese government has resolutely
refused to disarm the Janjaweed Arab militias perpetrating atrocities
against civilians in Darfur in defiance of United Nations Security Council
resolutions.

Khartoum is offering various explanations in al-Bashir's
defence, including the claim in a document issued by the Sudanese embassy in
Harare, that states that the Darfur conflict is an internal matter and that
the "Sudanese judiciary is capable and is in the process of solving and
dealing with situation through their own investigation committees and
special courts that have already been formed for the purpose".

The
document accuses the ICC prosecutor of having become "more political in his
campaign against Sudan and has breached the norms and professional ethics of
law as is evident in his address to the media."

The most potent argument
al-Bashir hoped to use to rally support in Africa and which master
rhetorician Mugabe would also have had a field day with is the claim made in
the embassy document referred to above that, "The ICC has targeted most of
the African countries and countries of the third world."

Unfortunately
for Mugabe, al-Bashir and other dictators, the sails have been taken out of
this argument by the arrest in Belgrade on Monday of former Serbian
president, Radovan Karadzic after 10 years on the world's "most wanted"
list. Karadzic, who is to face eleven charges of genocide, war crimes and
crimes against humanity for his role in the Bosnian war between 1992 and
1995, is from the heart of Europe and not the Third World.

Two
international human rights organizations, the Enough Project and Impunity
Watch, have already released a report examining the legal options available
to hold Mugabe and others to account for crimes and atrocities perpetrated
during his 28-year rule. These include the Matabeleland massacres in the
1980s and the ruthless crackdown against political opponents over the last
decade. It must indeed be a case of the head that wears the stolen crown
lying very uneasily in the case of Zimbabwe's illegitimately elected
president.

Bob still holds some cards

Mail and Guardian

ANALYSIS -
Jul 26 2008 06:00

Entering talks with the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) this week, Robert Mugabe appeared to be in his
weakest position ever. But he still held some strong cards, particularly the
unstinting support of Zimbabwe's security establishment.

The
fortnight scheduled for the secret talks, scheduled to kick off on Thursday,
looks unrealistically short given the enormous distance separating the two
major participants.

Mugabe's friends in Africa have dwindled in the wake
of the violent presidential election run-off, while industrial confidence
and capacity are at a historic low and famine is stalking
Zimbabwe.

Some analysts argue that even the sanctions veto by Russia and
China in the United Nations Security Council has weakened him, as he is now
indebted to those states, which want demonstrable progress.

"Zimbabwe
has to repay the debt because the United States and United Kingdom will say
to Russia and China, 'See how your client is misbehaving'," said Zimbabwean
political commentator Eldred Masunungure.

The most intense pressure will
come from the rapid disintegration of Zimbabwe's economy, an issue the MDC
will exploit to the full.

"There is absolutely no point in negotiating a
deal that is not acceptable to the people with money," said Eddie Cross, a
senior Tsvangirai policy adviser, this week.

The MDC knows that any
agreement must be acceptable to Britain, the US and other Western countries,
which want Mugabe to go.

It has pledged to avoid an "elite pact", while
insisting that any settlement must give it full executive power. An MDC
insider said: "Mugabe can be ceremonial [president] if he wants, but we want
full power."

He said that the party did not want a Kenyan scenario in
which the executive is split evenly between the two parties.

The
source said that once the MDC was ensconced in power it would call on a
range of countries to make good on their promises of economic assistance to
an MDC government.

Asked how the MDC proposed to deal with the
Zimbabwean military police, he said: "That's Mugabe's problem. He has too
many people to please."

For Mugabe the main concern is the tide of
opinion in the African Union and the Southern African Development Community
that the way in which Zimbabwe's recent elections were conducted has cost
him support. Cross said Mugabe wanted a settlement that would please
Africa.

But his Western critics and Tsvangirai might have underestimated
his resolve and the diehard stance of the Zimbabwean security establishment
and his other supporters. He has tabled demands that the MDC will find hard
to meet.

Land reform tops his agenda -- Mugabe wants the MDC to agree
that land seizures will not be reversed.

Land is a powerfully emotive
issue among Africans in general and many small Zimbabwean farmers who
benefited from the land grabs are anxious about their future under an
MDC-led government.

He also wants the MDC to prevail on the West to lift
sanctions on the Zimbabwean elite -- an issue over which that party has no
control. Mugabe knows that Zimbabwe's securocrats will not accept an
MDC-dominated government without his blessing.

Tsvangirai's party has
been decimated in Zimbabwe, with hundreds of its activists and MPs in
jail.But his diplomatic drive while out of Zimbabwe during the elections,
coupled with the widespread perception that Zanu-PF war veterans and
militias were overwhelmingly responsible for election violence, have shifted
African opinion in his favour.

One indication that the balance of power
has shifted was his success in insisting on additional mediators in the
talks. Mbeki had little option but to accept the assistance of AU commission
chair Jean Ping and UN special envoy Haile Menkerios.

An advantage of
this for the MDC, said one insider, was that "if things fall apart, they can
act quickly and bring back the issue of sanctions".

A recent report on
the Zimbabwean elections by the Human Sciences Research Council lent weight
to the MDC's view that Mbeki's agenda has consistently been to keep the
trade union-based Tsvangirai out of power and ensure that Zanu-PF, under
more moderate leadership, keeps the reins.

While the focus has mostly
been on Mugabe and Tsvangirai's game plan for the talks, scheduled to last
two weeks, the leader of the other MDC faction Arthur Mutambara might punch
above his weight.

Mutambara holds the balance of power in the Zimbabwean
Parliament, meaning that both Mugabe and Tsvangirai will need to court his
support in passing legislation and electing a parliamentary
speaker.

It is already being suggested that Mutambara's MDC will nominate
its deputy president Gibson Sibanda to the speaker's post, a move that will
guarantee it the fourth most powerful post in government.

There are
fundamental policy -- and personal -- differences between leaders of the two
MDC factions. Their animosity was on display on Monday at the signing of the
"memorandum of understanding", which set the framework and agenda for the
talks.

Mutambara has adopted a more conciliatory attitude to Mugabe,
attending an earlier meeting with him, which Tsvangirai
boycotted.

His faction supported Simba Makoni in the first presidential
poll, but pledged to back Tsvangirai in his aborted run-off
campaign.

Pass the salt, puppetWhen Robert Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai sat down to lunch on Monday they must have used very long
spoons.

One of the key hurdles the settlement negotiations will have to
surmount is the personal loathing between the two main
negotiators.

Emerging from the signing ceremony, aides ushered Mugabe and
Tsvangirai to the 17th floor of the Rainbow Towers hotel, where a room was
prepared for the duo to lunch alone.

One can safely assume the
exchange was laconic; pass the salt, keep that knife away.

Earlier
they had posed for an unlikely picture. Smiling and holding hands were
Mugabe, destroyer and murderer, and Tsvangirai, the white man's dumb poodle.
Not even Thabo Mbeki's musty jokes -- met with exaggerated laughter from the
audience -- could hide the obvious mutual revulsion, bred over a bitter
10-year power struggle.

Tsvangirai, an arm leisurely slung over the back
of his chair, looked away as Mugabe walked into the conference room. Mugabe
stole only the slyest of glances at his opponent as he slouched into his
chair, mumbling a greeting to the leader of the other MDC faction, Arthur
Mutambara.

Both leaders sulked their way through the ceremony. Clearly,
neither wanted to be there; and neither looked ready to concede an
inch.According to Tsvangirai this was a meeting between "the ruling party
and the winning party", and he made a point of calling Mugabe "president of
Zanu-PF", not of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe insisted the talks would only
succeed if "we call off, if we haven't done so already, all influences on
ourselves from Europe and the United States, so we think for
ourselves".

The conference room was also far too small for the vast egos
on display. -- Jason Moyo

Journos added to EU hit list

Mail and Guardian

MANDY
ROSSOUW AND JASON MOYO - Jul 27 2008 06:00

Even more Zimbabwean
elites will have to swap their Armani suits and Salvadore Ferragamo shoes
for local brands as shopping trips to Europe will be something of the past,
even for those who are not Robert Mugabe's nearest and dearest.

The
decision of the European Union (EU) Council to increase the list of
individuals in the Zimbabwean elite to 168 is aimed at ensuring that they
will not be allowed to travel to or through Europe and their bank accounts
held in European institutions will be frozen.

Zimbabwe Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono and the deputy chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission Joyce Kazembe, as well as Zimbabwean attorney general Bharat
Patel are among the Zimbabwean elite who will not be allowed to travel to
Europe.

Two Zimbabwean journalists are accused by the EU of "whipping up"
the terror campaign before and during the recent June 27 presidential
election and have been added to the list of 168 individuals who have been
issued with travel bans and the freezing of assets.

Political editor
of the state-owned Sunday Mail Munyaradzi Huni and former political editor
Caesar Zvayi of The Herald were included on the newly revised list. Both
these newspapers are owned by the Zanu-PF government and seen to be
mouthpieces of self-styled president Robert Mugabe.

Diplomats say
European ambassadors in Harare compiled the list and recommended that the
implementation of the decision be delayed by a few weeks to allow for the
mediation effort, that started this week outside Pretoria, to take
shape.

But the EU decided that immediate implementation will keep
pressure on the Mugabe regime. The issue will be raised at the South
African-EU summit scheduled to take place this weekend in Bordeaux,
France.

A surprising addition to the list is the head of Zimbabwe
Cricket, Peter Chingoka, whohas been at loggerheads with British cricket
organisations for their refusal to tour in Zimbabwe and their lobbying to
get Zimbabwe kicked out of the International Cricket Council.

Also on
the list is the president of the Zimbabwean branch of the World Medical
Association. Paul Chimedza has, according to the EU, refused to treat
injured members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Companies
have also been targeted. Their assets and bank accounts will be frozen and
therefore they will not be able to do business in or with European
companies.

The Zimbabwean national defence company, Zimbabwe Defence
Industries, owned by the Zimbabwe government, is on the list. Its directors
include Leo Mugabe, Robert Mugabe's nephew, as well as former army chief
Solomon Mujuru, husband of vice-president Joice Mujuru.

Other
targeted companies are Zanu-PF's financial holding company, Zidco Holdings,
as well as the party's publishing arm, Jongwe Printing and Publishing
Company and Cold Comfort Farm Trust Cooperative, a company owned by
Zimbabwean national security minister Didymus Mutasa. Grace Mugabe is also
involved in the trust. The rest of the list includes army chiefs and war
veterans.

Mugabe and those closest to him are not allowed to enter
Europe, but he managed to enter on a United Nations ticket when he attended
the UN food summit in Rome earlier this year.

The United States has
decided to wait and see whether the mediation effort makes significant
headway before deciding whether to follow the EU's example.

Serious
cash shortage hits Zimbabwe

HARARE - A serious cash shortage has hit Zimbabwe as the
country's economic crisis worsens each day amid reports that the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe RBZ has completely run out of paper to print new bank
notes.

Even black market dealers have also run out resulting in citizens
now resorting increasingly to use of foreign currency to conduct basic
financial transactions. The South African Rand and the US dollar are now the
currencies of choice.

Although Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono
yesterday announced that he will unveil new financial strategies to ensure
that the problem is addressed he has limited options, given that the central
bank has run shot of paper to print bank notes, following the cancellation
last month of the supply of the required paper by German supplier Giesecke
and Devrient.

The problem has adversely affected business with some now
on the verge of closing because of the cash crisis.

"Our workers too have been affected as
they can not get the required money to commute to and from work."

The
central bank has set $100 billion as the maximum cash withdrawal limit per
day. This is enough only to buy a box of matches.

"We are now failing to
go to work because of this problem", said Musavengana Muza of Harare. "We
can not even get enough money from the bank to meet our daily needs and we
are now using Rands and US dollars for simple financial transactions such as
buying bread and other grocery items."

Remittances from Zimbabweans
living in the Diaspora have become the major source income for their
families living in Zimbabwe.

Although Gono could not be reached for
comment yesterday sources at the RBZ said that the central bank was
struggling to secure an alternative source of the special paper on which to
print the agro-cheques which are now commonly used as currency in the
country.

"The problem is that the RBZ has run short of paper," said one
source. "As a result the cash problem is going to persist until a solution
is found."

Problems started soon after the Germany firm which has been
supplying the country with the paper cut ties with Harare as a result of
sanctions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his government by the
European Union.

Gono reacted angrily to the move and advised members of
the public not to panic saying the central bank had put enough measures in
place to ensure that the smooth flow of cash would not be affected. This now
appears to have all been wishful thinking.

Speculation has been rife
that the central bank will deal with the problem by introducing higher
denomination notes but the situation has remained critical over the past
weeks.

A 100 billion dollar special agro cheque note unveiled on Monday
this week has failed to alleviate the cash shortage. Sources say the central
bank is already mooting the introduction of a 500 billion dollar special
agro cheque but the shortage of paper remains an insurmountable
challenge.

Even RTGS which have been the only remaining reliable source
of payment have been affected as they now take weeks to
process.

Ideally financial institutions must process RTGS within only 24
hours.

The RBZ said in a statement that it will soon introduce new
financial measures to curb the current problems but did not give a specific
date or outline any specific measures.

"We wish to advise members of
the public that the RBZ will take new steps to ensure that members of the
public are not inconvenienced ", said the statement.

Leadership issue remains major sticking point at talks

By Tererai
KarimakwendaJuly 25, 2008

Talks between Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF
party and the 2 MDC formations entered a second day on Friday at a secret
location in South Africa, with local media reports saying that a deal could
be reached before the 2 week deadline spelled out in the Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU). At the same time the reports acknowledged that the
issue of who will lead a Government of National Unity (GNU) remains a
sticking point at the talks.

On Friday the state controlled Herald
newspaper reported that a ZANU-PF politburo meeting earlier this week
decided that the party would not accept a power-sharing deal that does not
recognise Robert Mugabe's re-election, or seeks to reverse his land reform
programme. Mugabe's insistence on leading any government of unity is equally
matched by the MDC's demand that party President Morgan Tsvangirai be the
leader since he won the initial presidential poll on March 29.

The
leadership issue is nothing new but it could easily endanger the talks. A
media blackout imposed on the current negotiations to resolve Zimbabwe's
political crisis has left the ordinary, suffering people in the dark
speculating as to what sort of arrangement could please both sides in this
strong rivalry.

Zimbabwean lecturer and political commentator Dr John
Makumbe said he is aware that ZANU-PF is desperate for a unity government
led by Mugabe while the MDC prefers a transitional authority without any
officials from either party. Given the polarity between the two parties on
the question of leadership, Makumbe believes that two weeks is not long
enough for the negotiations. He said: "There is very little room for
compromise and a semi-skilled mediator like Mbeki will have great difficulty
bringing the parties to a centre position."

Asked if he is aware of
what ordinary Zimbabweans want, the outspoken commentator said: "Zimbabweans
are sick and tired of the old man. Zimbabweans know Mugabe is poison and
anything he touches is destroyed."Makumbe explained that the transitional
government would be made of neutral individuals chosen from civil society,
churches and community leaders.

Meanwhile the first-ever summit between
South Africa and the European Union kicked off on Friday in the French city
of Bordeaux, with a meeting between Mbeki, French President Nicolas Sarkozy
and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. At a joint news
conference after the summit, Sarkozy is reported to have showered Mbeki with
praise for what he described as his "bold and courageous" intervention. The
French leader also said he would not be holding any form of talks with
Robert Mugabe, because he judges what the ZANU-PF leader has done to
Zimbabwe very severely.

Cosatu Vows to Make Mugabe's Life 'Difficult'

South Africa's Trade Union Federation, COSATU has vowed to make
Robert Mugabe's life 'difficult' if he does not concede power.

The
comments were made by COSATU's general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi as
Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF and MDC negotiating members finally sat down to talks on
Thursday. Vavi said if the talks, expected to last the next two weeks, do
not reach a strong settlement, he will call on his members to boycott next
month's SADC summit scheduled to take place in Johannesburg - an event which
Mugabe is expected to attend as an incumbent regional leader. Vavi warned
that, although the federation cannot prevent Mugabe from traveling to South
Africa, "We will make it very difficult for him to be
here."

COSATU's national spokesman, Patrick Craven told Newsreel on
Friday that the federation and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions took a
decision after the June 27 'sham election' that the Zimbabwean government
'should no longer be recognised.' He said the government "has no mandate
because of its appalling human rights record and it is a position we are
encouraging trade unions around the world to accept".

Craven said
"workers should refuse to aid Mugabe and his cronies anywhere in the world,"
and called the action a form of "targeted sanctions against a regime that
has no credibility." He added that the federation will also "encourage
governments to stop inviting Mugabe to international conferences and
events," and he reiterated that "only a government agreed to, as part of the
negotiating process should be recognised."

A unity government is widely
believed to be on the cards at the end of the ZANU-PF and MDC negotiations
and Newsreel understands discussions are taking place about making Mugabe a
titular head of state with Morgan Tsvangerai as executive Prime Minister.
Craven said COSATU will only accept a result that "honours the verdict"of
the Zimbabwean people and in this regard"the result of the March elections
should be the basis for Zimbabwe's parliament." He added fresh elections
need to be held as soon as possible and that, "any administration set up in
the interim must be purely transitional to facilitate a free and fair
poll."

COSATU is also organising a mass march set to take place
outside next month's SADC summit in Johannesburg. Craven said the
demonstration "will allow South African workers as well as Zimbabweans
living in South Africa to express their views about what steps should be
taken."

Statement on the performance of the “public” media during
the 2008 presidential run-off election campaign

Harare, June 27th,
2008

Since the announcement of the March
29th presidential election results in May the government-controlled
print and electronic media have been suborned by ZANU PF to conduct an
unprecedented propaganda campaign to have its candidate, Robert Mugabe,
re-elected as the country’s president.

If in the March elections campaign, these
media were considered to be merely heavily biased towards the ruling party at
the time, MMPZ – and certainly the public – have been unable to ignore an
alarming increase in the bias of the national public broadcaster, ZBC, and the
government-controlled Zimpapers’ publications, that has witnessed them setting
aside every standard of basic journalistic practice and common decency in their
promotion of Mugabe and their assault on the winner of the first round election,
Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition MDC.

In their slavish expression of loyalty to
ZANU PF these media have not only abandoned their public mandate to provide fair
and credible news services to the people of Zimbabwe, they have trampled with
the utmost contempt on the country’s own laws governing the conduct of the media
during elections, as well as regional and international guidelines setting basic
minimum standards of media practice, which attempt to ensure that political
contestants receive fair and equitable
coverage.

Most wickedly, these media allowed
themselves to become megaphones for ZANU PF’s virulent hate campaign against the
MDC that has included openly threatening violence against the electorate, as
well as gratuitously discrediting and slandering the MDC and its legitimate
presidential candidate.

They have also been complicit in suffocating
any news of what has evidently been a nationwide campaign of extreme violence to
liquidate the opposition party’s structures and terrorize the electorate in
general against voting for the opposition candidate for a second
time.

Evidence of this brutal campaign and those
responsible for it abounds in all the privately owned media and those civic
organizations committed to the protection of Zimbabweans’ human rights,
particularly those organizations dealing with victims of violence and
torture.

Yet ZBC and the Zimpapers’ publications
barely reported a single violent incident against members of the MDC, let alone
the numerous murders that have taken place throughout the country since the
initial results of the March 29th
elections.

Instead, they mounted a malicious propaganda
campaign to portray the opposition as being exclusively responsible for the
violence that racked the country between the two elections in order to disguise
what has evidently been a highly organized, systematic programme of
state-sponsored violence against the MDC’s membership and an electorate which
ZANU PF officials have publicly stated “voted wrongly” in the initial elections.

Senior ZANU PF officials have used their
authority to make regular statements inciting hatred, violence and intolerance
during the campaign leading up to the presidential election run-off with
impunity.

Such statements represent a clear violation
of Section 7(1) of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Media Coverage of Elections) Regulations, 2008 which states: “A
print publisher shall not publish any election publication that incites violence
or advocates hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, sex, gender, religion or
political conviction that constitutes incitement to cause harm.”

Yet the following statements appeared in the
government Press during the presidential election
campaign:

“This country shall not again come under the
rule and control of the white man, direct or indirect…Anyone who seeks to
undermine our land reform, itself the bedrock of politics from time immemorial,
seeks and gets war” – President Mugabe (The Sunday Mail 15/6) and;

“ZvanaTsvangirai zvekuti varungu
tichavadzorera nyika hazvife zvakaitika, kuzvinyepera. You can vote for him
(Tsvangirai) but if he brings back the whites we go to war. You decide for
yourselves to vote for war or vote for people who work for the development of
the country”
– President Mugabe, The Herald
(17/6).

These sentiments were then amplified in the news feature
and “analysis” pages of the government Press, where columnists magnified the
intolerance by adding their own offensive and insulting language to discredit
and malign Mugabe’s critics, and particularly Tsvangirai and the
MDC.

The
government-controlled media also celebrated statements that undermined the
democratic process. For example, they found nothing amiss with Mugabe declaring
that ZANU PF would not
allow Tsvangirai to
rule even if he did win because Zimbabwe’s independence “came through the barrel of the gun, not the
ballot”, (ZTV (12/6, 7am). The Sunday Mail (15/6) quoted him persisting with his war
theme warning “…This legacy should not simply be vanquished
by the stroke of a pen at the ballot.”

Similarly, the government media gave
approving publicity to statements by senior members of the security forces,
including the police, that also undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic culture by
declaring their allegiance to the personality of the incumbent President rather
than the institution.

Apart from the grave offence to the
democratic process that such behaviour represents, it also makes a mockery of
the Declaration
by the National Multi-Party Liaison Committee for the 2008 Presidential Run-off
Elections, in which, among other things, the
contesting parties committed themselves to “
refraining from using language that is intimidatory or which may provoke
violence”, and “condemning any action that may undermine
the free and fair conduct of elections in Zimbabwe”.

This intolerable and dangerous abuse of the
media to incite hatred, intolerance and violence against innocent fellow
citizens places Zimbabwe at the very brink of a catastrophe that was last
witnessed in Rwanda, where the media played a crucial role in fanning the flames
of ethnic hatred that led to the genocide in that country in 1994.

Today, the government media in Zimbabwe are
being used to fan the flames of hatred and intolerance against a legitimate
political movement that will have tragic consequences if this practice is not
stopped forthwith.

As it stands on the day of the presidential
run-off, MMPZ cannot provide sensible statistics about how the government media
covered the political contestants because there is only one statistic to give:
ZANU PF’s candidate received 100 percent favourable coverage in the government
controlled media, while the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai received zero percent
favourable coverage and on the few occasions he and his party were mentioned,
they received 100 percent aggressively negative coverage in these media. Even
the party’s paid advertisements were
rejected.

Under Section 16F(a) of the Electoral Act
broadcasters and publishers are obliged to ensure that “all
political parties and
candidates are treated equitably in their news media, in regard to the extent,
timing and prominence of the coverage accorded to them” during an election period. A similar requirement is envisaged
byPrinciple 2.1.5 of the SADC Guidelines on the conduct of
democratic elections, which calls for “equal opportunity for all political parties
to access the state media”.

As MMPZ has observed in the past, these media have
become propaganda tools of the ruling party along with the police force as
illustrated by Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri’s comments during
the campaign attributing the violence to the MDC and the West. These media are
complicit in the murder, assault and destruction of property by their silence
and their failure to investigate a single incident against the opposition.

They have been promoting hatred in the news and
editorial pages of their papers. ZBC TV’s current affairs programmes were
contaminated with egregious and offensive assaults against the opposition, which
was never given a chance to defend itself.

The fundamental tenor of the ruling party’s
campaign was that the MDC are “sell-outs” who wish to overturn Zimbabwe’s
independence and hand the country back to the country’s former colonial masters,
Britain.

The MDC was also accused of introducing
violence into Zimbabwean politics, and hence placing themselves outside the
democratic framework. They became “sell-outs’ and “stooges”, dehumanising labels
that imply the MDC is a legitimate target for ZANU PF supporters’ “righteous”
violence. All this could not have worked, had it not been so thoroughly
disseminated. The government-controlled media were willing accomplices in
promoting this image so keen were they in pursuing their unrelenting assault on the MDC while
promoting the image of ZANU PF.

The use of threatening language in the campaigns
was compounded by the apparently deliberate reporting of falsehoods.

Section 16F(b) of the Electoral Act and Section
8(1) of ZEC’s own election reporting regulations require the media to “ensure that during an election period, news
and current affairs programmes or features relating to the election in question
are presented in a balanced, fair, complete and accurate manner”.

The government-controlled media simply
ignored this requirement and ZEC, the body legally mandated to ensure observance
of this and other requirements, have done nothing to force them to do so. For
example, The Sunday Mail (1/6) reported Industry Minister Obert
Mpofu saying, “MDC ngairege nyaya yeviolence because
zvinovapinza mudanger. Takatora nyika ino nepfuti.Vanhu vakawanda vakafa saka
let the MDC be warned” (The MDC must stop violence because this will get them
into danger. We won this country by the gun. Many people died in the process so
let the MDC be warned.)

Contrary
to common knowledge that the MDC was the victim of state-sponsored violence, the
paper allowed this comment to go unchallenged and denied the MDC an opportunity
to respond.

Because they are unaccountable, the
government-controlled media distorted the truth and even resorted to
fabrications with reckless abandon. These media are unreliable sources of
information – they are virulently active messengers of disinformation,
misinforming the public over all issues of any importance related to the
election, the run-off, the violence and international, regional and local
political developments. For example, the day before the election The Herald ran a front-page story lying
about the SADC troika meeting on Zimbabwe.

The
level of this crude manipulation in these media was also illustrated by The Herald’s (23/6) distorted coverage
of the news that the MDC had decided to withdraw its candidate from the
presidential election run-off, and particularly the riotous behaviour of ZANU PF
youths that prevented the MDC from staging a court-sanctioned rally in Harare on
the Sunday before the election (22/6). In reporting the news that the rally had
not taken place, The Herald passively
reported ZANU PF’s Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of
Justice, who signed the ZEC Multi-party Liaison Committee agreement, providing an explanation that
approached the realm of deranged fantasy; that MDC “hooligans” had dressed up in
stolen ZANU PF regalia in order to disturb their own event. The paper refused to
question the credibility of this absurd explanation.

The government-controlled media have trampled on
the laws of our country; they have treated with utter contempt the SADC
guidelines on media coverage of elections. They have failed the nation - they
must be reformed. These institutions have no future in a democratic Zimbabwe.
Any media laws must protect the people from such savage abuse that has led to so
much misery in other countries around the world. Zimbabwe is evidently in urgent
need of a new Constitution and any constitutional overhaul must guarantee media
freedoms and guard against such extreme abuse of the so-called public media as
has been witnessed in these last two elections.

MMPZ therefore reiterates the view it articulated
before March 29th, that one of the more important tasks of any new
political dispensation will be to reform the laws affecting the business of
media in Zimbabwe – indeed, all the media laws – and to demand that the national
public broadcaster is freed from government control and returns to its mandate
to provide an impartial, fair and accurate news service to the people of this
country.

Feel free to write to MMPZ. We may
not able to respond to everything but we will look at each message. For
previous MMPZ reports, and more information about the Project, please visit our
website at http://www.mmpz.org

CHRA weekly update: Harare last week: 19-26 July 2008

Water
Supply

Most parts of Harare remained dry in the past week. Mabvuku and
Tafara residents are now going for the full second month without water.
Other areas affected include Glen Lorne, Highlands, Kuwadzana, Budiriro,
Warren Park, Glen View, Masasa, Glen Norah and Dzivarasekwa. Hatfield has
gone for the last one week and some days with no drop of water while Mount
Pleasant and Northwood has only had about 6 days of water in the last six
months and has no water at all over the last 4 weeks. With no ZESA residents
can't use boreholes and are paying the Zim $ equivalent of +- 80 US dollars
for a drop of 5000 litres of water.While the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority (ZINWA) is failing to restore water supplies to these areas, the
authority is surprisingly failing to fix water pipes where water is gushing
out; particularly in most parts of Kuwadzana and the Central Business
District. Meanwhile the Mayor and Chairperson for the Harare city council Mr
Muchadei Masunda has expressed his view that water supply management must be
brought back to the city council so that ZINWA will concentrate on bulk
water management only. His Chitungwiza counterpart Mayor Israel Marange
expressed the same sentiments. CHRA has for a long time been fighting the
ZINWA take over on the basis that ZINWA lacks adequate technical capacity to
manage water supply. CHRA hinted this week on a possible water bills payment
boycott by residents; should the situation continue like this. In the past,
CHRA mobilized residents to boycott rates payment to the illegal commissions
appointed by the Minister of Local Government to run the city of Harare.
Meanwhile CHRA urges the city council to intensify efforts to reclaim water
supply management in the interests of saving lives.

Electricity
supply

Electricity supply remains erratic, with most suburbs spending few
hours with electricity per day. On average, suburbs like Warren Park,
Mufakose, Glen View, Glen Norah, Highlands and Dzivarasekwa were getting
electricity for not more than 2 hours. Please note that the length of the
day for electricity usage is calculated from 0700hrs to 2000hrs. Residents
of Shingai court in the Avenues went through their 4th week in darkness.
Meanwhile another ZESA substation was engulfed by fire in Warren Park D,
plunging parts of the suburb into darkness. ZESA Public Relations manager
said that the return of electricity supply will depend on the availability
of foreign currency. Harare has been gripped by a sudden wave of burning
transformers, which ZESA puts the blame on vandals who are draining
transformer oil. Mount Pleasant has been without ZESA supply since Thursday
last week. There was brief resumption on Sunday night for 12 hours and then
gone. CHRA urges the residents to desist from this kind of criminal behavior
and be wary of criminal elements who are damaging the electricity
transformers. Residents have a duty to report such cases of vandalism to
ZESA or the police. However, the Association calls upon ZESA to be
innovative enough to find security solutions to this problem. CHRA
reiterates that ZESA cannot sit back and blame the situation on vandalism,
while the innocent residents suffer continuously. CHRA will soon be
mobilizing its wide membership for some popular action with regards to ZESA
problems.

Sewer and waste management

Sewer spillages continue
to characterize the face of most of the residential suburbs. Raw sewage is a
common sight in Mufakose, Mabvuku, Tafara, Highfields (Canaan Engineering),
Glen Norah and Dzivarasekwa. Residents in Mabvuku have resorted to digging
drainage trenches across their yards to avoid raw sewage from spilling into
their homes. CHRA mourns the state's decision to ban NGO and civic society
organization's activities. Before the ban, CHRA was carrying out popular
action campaigns which would see residents teaming up to engage in some kind
of waste management activities. In Mbare the Association did a lot of work
around refuse collection and sewer management. CHRA provided cleaning
materials, detergents and protective clothing for the cleaning of Matapi
flats. The Association urges the council to engage ZINWA and find a lasting
solution to the sewer problems.

Road maintenance

Pot holes,
now commonly referred to as 'craters' because of their deep nature, have
established themselves as permanent features on Harare's most roads. Deep
potholes are found in most roads in Highfields (Canaan Engineering),
Mufakose, Kambuzuma and Mabvuku. According to our reports, the council has
not yet started any work to repair the roads. Whilst CHRA appreciates that
the council inherited a 'dead' municipality from Chombo's (Minister of Local
government) illegal and corrupt commissions, we urge the council to
commence the road maintenance program and save the motorists from the
nightmare they continue to experience as they drive on the roads. Roads are
the face of the city; therefore to improve the roads is to improve the image
of the city. CHRA has in the past implemented some road maintenance
programs, and therefore stands ready to partner with the council to repair
our roads.

Housing and Shelter

A
survey recently carried out by CHRA reveals that accommodation in most of
the low to medium density suburbs is now being charged in United State
dollars, while for the high density areas, landlords are charging in South
African Rand. In areas like Warren Park and Mufakose, a single room is going
for 100 Rands, while in places like Avondale and Highlands landlords are
charging USD100 per room per month. Landlords argue that, they cannot charge
rentals in local currency, whose value is seriously eroded by inflation on a
daily basis. Meanwhile, forex remains difficult to access for most of the
lodgers whose monthly income earnings are well below the poverty datum line.
A group of 11 families is currently sleeping in the open along Airport road,
after being evicted. The families are failing to find alternative
accommodation as a result of the rentals being charged in
forex.

Although the economic crisis is the immediate force behind the
charging of rentals in forex, CHRA notes that Operation
Murambatsvina/Restore order left more residents homeless, as most of their
homes were demolished. The operation also destroyed backyard structures,
which for a long time had been accommodating thousands of residents who are
now homeless. The Government is still failing to provide accommodation for
the survivors of this notorious operation. The increased demand for
accommodation, boosted by the state sponsored Operation Murambatsvina, has
exacerbated the plight of the lodgers and low income earners. CHRA calls
upon the state to come up with immediate measures that cushion the residents
against the disastrous effects of Operation Murambatsvina. The Ministry of
Local Government must provide direct loans to Local Authorities ear marked
for housing development. CHRA demands that the state must be responsible for
its irresponsible yet cruel actions like Operation
Murambatsvina.

The Bread basket

The economic crisis continues
to deepen with no sign of recovery at all. Prices for basic goods were
increasing by 500% per day last week. This week, prices for most of the
basic goods have been going up at 800% per day. For instance, a 10kg of
mealie meal was going for zw$600 billion as at Saturday 19 July 2008, but on
Monday it shot up to zw$1, 08 trillion, before it shot up to zw$1, 9
trillion the following day.

With effect from this last week, most
residents, who are lodgers, were grappling with their rentals. Owing to
inflation, most landlords are now charging rentals in foreign currency.
According to a survey carried out by CHRA recently, accommodation in high to
medium density suburbs is charged in South African Rand, while in low
densities, charges are made in United States Dollars. For instance, most
landlords in areas like Warren Park and Budiriro charge R100 per room per
month, while in Highlands, Hillside and Borrowdale a room ranges from USD100
to USD200 per month. Given that monthly income earnings for most residents
fall far short of the poverty datum line, the charging of rentals in forex
and the rising inflation continues to put the cost of living beyond the
affordability of the residents. The table below shows the cost of living
for an average family of six in Harare, for the previous week (13-19 July
2008) and last week; 20-26 July 2008.

The minimum wage remains at zw$100 billion yet an average
family of six people needed zw$29, 57 trillion to go through last week. The
plight of the residents is exacerbated by the fact that the maximum amount
daily withdrawal limit from the bank stands at zw$100 billion. This amount
was not even enough for the residents to commute to and from work, given
that commuter operators were charging zw$80 billion for a single trip by
Friday 25 July 2008. The irresponsible and heartless Reserve Bank Governor
Gideon Gono remains deaf to the calls by the starving residents that the
daily maximum withdrawal limit of 100 billion does not make sense which ever
way one looks at it.

Meanwhile NGOs remain banned from distributing
food relief to the starving residents amid reports that the state is giving
out aid to supporters of ZANU PF only. There are also reports that even the
majority of ZANU PF supporters are not getting this aid as most of the goods
are taken by the chefs for sale at the black/parallel market. The so called
"peoples' shops" started by ZANU PF during its election campaign appear to
have been fast blown away by inflation.

With transport and food costs
rising unabated; residents, parents and children are walking distances
ranging from 15-20km to and from work and school on empty
stomachs.

The political atmosphere

Despite the signing of the
Memorandum of Understanding between the MDC and ZANU PF, the political
environment in Harare and indeed across the nation remains very tense. ZANU
PF militia bases remain intact in Sunningdale, Mufakose and in Dzivarasekwa.
Public gatherings remain banned while ZANU PF meetings are being held. CHRA
recorded 12 acts of political intimidation of civic society activists by
suspected ZANU PF militia. The raids on the vendors at Mbare Musika by the
resident ZANU PF aligned group of thugs called 'Chipangano' continues
unabated.

Conclusion

Service
delivery appears to b e fast collapsing every week in Harare. More areas are
running dry of water, while those which previously did not have water remain
dry. Reference is made to Mabvuku and Tafara which have gone for 4 months
now without water. Darkness is fast engulfing the city of Harare as more and
more substations are burning and ZESA is failing to find a solution. Just
like water supply, electricity supply continues to deteriorate every week.
As ZINWA battles wit water provision, raw sewage continues to gush out in
most suburbs. It is relieving to note that the city council has begun to
voice its concerns about the ZINWA take over. Other city councils like
Chitungwiza have echoed similar sentiments. CHRA expects more action from
the council, towards reclaiming the water supply management from the failing
ZINWA. On the political front, there is need for those supervising the talks
to dispatch teams that continuously assess the situation on the ground,
because the situation remains tense despite the assurances by the state that
there will be tolerance. NGOs and civic society organizations remain banned,
and so are public gatherings. Thus the democratic space for the resident's
remains closed despite the signing of the MOU.

A
letter from the diaspora

Dear Friends.There is
only one topic of conversation for Zimbabweans at the moment and that is the
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on Monday 21st of July 2008.
Despite the total lack of hard facts, journalists desperate for copy and
so-called experts who love the sound of their own voices have rushed in to
prophesy on the outcomes of the talks now taking place in South Africa. The
civic organization too have been quick to air their views about the wisdom -
or lack of it - of Morgan Tsvangirai's participation in those talks. Some of
these civic bodies have even questioned Tsvangirai's right to represent the
Zimbabwean people at the talks. Listening to some of the comments, you might
be forgiven for wondering if they even want a settlement of Zimbabwe's
desperate plight. Even before the MOU was signed, a grouping of civic
organizations had issued a statement saying that they would reject a
transitional government led by either Tsvangirai or Mugabe. Instead they
want a neutral figure to head any new transitional
government.

Watching it all from the UK diaspora, two points strike me
about this move by civic society: the first is that they seem to have
forgotten the March 29th elections which Morgan Tsangirai and the MDC won
conclusively. The second point concerns the appointment of a so-called
'neutral' figure to head up a new government. Anyone with even the most
rudimentary understanding of Zimbabwean politics over the last few years
knows very well that 'neutrality' is simply not possible in that context. In
the life and death struggle that has gripped Zimbabwe, even finding food for
your family has become 'political. From as far back as 2004 when I left, the
ownership of a Zanu PF card determined whether or not you would be able to
access maize; to claim that you were neutral and belonged to neither party
would get you nothing, except a beating. That was true right down at the
grassroots level of politics and it still maintains today. How then is it
possible to claim that 'neutrality' is a requirement for leadership in a
country where political allegiance has penetrated every single aspect of
life. To be neutral in Zimbabwe is virtually impossible. Even the police,
the judiciary and the military who are all supposed to be neutral and
apolitical have taken sides. Where then is this 'neutral' leader to be
found? The Zimbabwean people have already spoken, they want a new
dispensation in their country and they want Morgan Tsvangirai to lead it. To
ignore that fact, as the civic groups have done is to ignore the democratic
voice of the people and, in my view, demonstrates a naïve lack of
understanding of political realities.

Like everyone else I felt
profound misgivings when I saw the pictures of Morgan Tsvangirai shaking
hands with Robert Mugabe. Like everyone else I asked myself how Tsvangirai
could shake the hand of the man who was killing, torturing and imprisoning
MDC supporters. Like everyone else I feared and still fear that Tsvangirai
would be swallowed up and rendered powerless by Zanu PF just as Joshua Nkomo
had been. I spent the rest of the week reading and rereading the MOU and
listening to the voices coming out of Zimbabwe via SW RadioAfrica. In all
the talk there is much about how Tsvangirai had been forced to negotiate or
risk losing power. Very few people have noted that Mugabe himself was also
forced to talk. With the economy imploding around him and the threat of even
more sanctions against his cronies, Mugabe too had no option but to talk to
his hated enemy. The truth is that all conflicts end with enemies facing
each other across a table and hammering out an agreement. Zimbabwe cannot
continue as it is, Zimbabweans know it and Africa knows it.

The MOU
acknowledges that "We (the parties ie Zanu PF and the two MDC formations)
have an obligation of establishing a framework of working together in an
inclusive government" (my underlining) Immediately noticeable is the fact
that Robert Gabriel Mugabe is nowhere referred to as the President of
Zimbabwe; he is simply called the President and First Secretary of Zanu PF
in the same way that Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the President of one MDC
formation. That, in my view is a step forward. The MOU is nothing more than
a Declaration of Commitment "to commit themselves to a dialogue with each
other with a view to creating a genuine, viable, permanent and sustainable
solution to the Zimbabwean situation and, in particular, to implement this
Memorandum of Understanding." There is nothing legally binding here and
either side could presumably get up and walk out at any point. It is the
Agenda for the Dialogue now taking place in South Africa at some secret
location that raises serious questions. "The Objectives and Priorities of a
new Government" are divided into headings: Economic, Political, Security,
Communication and Framework for a new Government. Under these various
headings are sub-headings such as Sanctions, the Land question, a new
constitution, free political activity, the rule of law, security of persons
and prevention of violence. The contentious matter of the freedom of the
press is summarised in the one word 'Media' with External radio stations
similarly described. No commitment is made to freeing up the media or
granting licences to independent radio stations. "It is envisaged" says the
MOU that " the Dialogue will be completed within a period of two weeks from
the signing of this MOU." Item10.1 entitled Security of Persons is of
particular concern to all Zimbabweans suffering state violence. "Each party
will issue a statement condemning the promotion and use of violence and call
for peace in the country" and furthermore " The Parties will take all
necessary measures to eliminate all forms of political violence, including
by non-state actors, (my underlining) and to ensure the security of persons
and property."Item 10.1(d) goes on to " agree that in the interim they will
work together to ensure the safety of any displaced persons and their safe
return home and that humanitarian and social welfare organizations are
enabled to render such assistance as might be required." There is no mention
of the restoration of food aid by international NGO's which was banned by
Mugabe's government on the grounds that they were preaching a message of
'regime change'. Item 10.2 says "The Parties shall refrain from using
abusive language that may incite hostility, political intolerance and ethnic
hatred or undermine each other."All of this is the Agenda for the
Dialogue now taking place. Some commentators have suggested that an
Agreement has already been reached and all that is being done now is to tie
up the loose ends. I don't know how these commentators are getting their
information since all Parties to the MOU have agreed not to communicate with
or through the media. For most of us I suggest the best thing we can do now
is to wait and see what transpires. Personally, I'm waiting to see Robert
Mugabe on camera telling the nation and the world that the violence must
stop and that he is genuinely committed to an 'Inclusive government.' Until
that happens, I shall not believe that things have changed for the better in
Zimbabwe. Mugabe has to instruct his moronic journalists at ZBC, The Herald
and the Sunday Mail to desist from the hate filled garbage they call
reporting. And above all, I'm waiting to see if Zanu PF rank and file, the
police and the army, the war vets and the Green Bombers will listen to their
Dear Leader when he tells them that the MDC is no longer the enemy but an
equal partner in government. Only then can the healing begin in
Zimbabwe.Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.

For God's sake people are suffering

I am quite shocked that
political parties are cuddling and romancing while ordinary Zimbabweans are
suffering, it's truly traumatizing .All eyes are on the talks and everybody
has forgotten the people who are threatened with extinction due to record
breaking poverty. Civic society and donor organizations where are you?
People are dying of hunger in the rural areas. There is no need for pussy
footing because Zimbabweans citizens are suffering. Imagine spending half a
day at the bank for money which can afford you transport to go home only, or
getting to the bank eight times in eight days to get an amount which can buy
a beer. To add salt to the injury everybody who is loyal to ZANU PF party
are law unto themselves. They are bullying innocent citizens of Zimbabwe who
are apolitical and all they want is to go to work and fend for their
families and then they say life is good. Where are we heading striving on
guerilla kind of administration? Brothers and sisters where is our country
going to? If we run down our pride, our beautiful nation, what good are we
doing to our nation and future generations? All I can say is that it's never
too late to do good.

There are thousands of children who are
supposed to be going to school, they have dropped off and are now roaming
the streets. This is a gap which might be felt in the future when these
children become elders, it has serious psychological implications. I am
seated in my office and I am desperately wondering about our national
leadership. Do they care about the citizens of Zimbabwe? Do they have pride
for their country at all? Are they not embarrassed that the world is
watching and are convinced that the Zimbabwean people cannot help
themselves? For once please prove that you are responsible for your country
and its beautiful citizens.

Our pride and integrity as
Zimbabweans has been dragged in the mud for too long and as one of the
patriotic citizens can longer bear the embarrassment and shame. Whenever
there is a gathering of other nationals and they ask for the presence of
Zimbabweans, you will be at pains to stand up and be seen. When you stand up
everyone will look at you as if you are an alien coming from space or hell.
For God's sake this is too much for these beautiful people. This is an
appeal to our national leadership to put the interest of the people they
were sent to shepherd by God not their bank accounts.

This is a
critical time for Zimbabwe, if this dialogue fails I see Zimbabwe being
worse than Somalia, hunger shall be the order of the day. As long as there
are innocent people being killed and hatred being manufactured more than
peace there shall be no rains in our country. Drought shall be inevitable
and I foresee the extension of the Sahara Desert into Zimbabwe, Leaders of
Zimbabwe have neglected God and his people busy amassing wealth which is
only for a short time. Leave a legacy for your people to talk about like
Mandela who is a pride of South Africa, every South African citizen
regardless of colour wants to be associated with Mandela. Zimbabwe is a
beautiful country brothers and sisters and it shall surely rise again, but
this time better than ever.

Simbarashe Chirimubwe is the
leader of Concerned Africans Association (CAA) and representative for rest
of Africa for Global Zimbabwe Forum(GZF) which is based in Geneva
,Switzerland

Alerts:
Mashonaland, Midlands Provinces

King Muteta, a police officer from Mudzi
North who was heavily assaulted by 12 war veterans has been confirmed dead
today, 25 July 2008.

The incident occurred on the 17th of July 2008 at
Chimukoko base in Muteta village under Chief Chimukoko, Mudzi were Muteta
was attacked by 12 war vets led by war vets who could only be identified as
Kangora and Gafa.

Muteta had
visited his parents, who had been assaulted by war veterans in the area
during the wave of the state organized violence.

Midlands

Gweru
Civil Court Magistrate, Mrs. Muchena yesterday, 24 July 2008 granted a draft
order barring police from interfering with NGO work or closing up offices in
Gweru.

This follows the ZIMCET offices raid which resulted in the
confiscation of all documentation on post election violence victims and
perpetrators as well as the arrest of Peter Muchengeti, the ZIMCET programs
officer.

Zimbabwe: The Mass Betrayal

New Era, Namibia

Friday, 25th of July
2008

. Zimbabwe and Namibia: Struggle and Solidarity

By the time
of Independence, the former victims had turned increasingly into
perpetrators to achieve their goals. More than 20 years later the degree of
violence and brutality with which they treated their fellow Zimbabweans had
exceeded the atrocities under colonial rule and made life for the majority
of the people more miserable than before Independence.

By Henning
Melber

In 1980 the Zimbabwean "povo" (people) celebrated a victory over
settler colonialism and Western imperialism. We celebrated with them. For
us, this was a step closer to Namibian sovereignty, even though the
overwhelming victory of ZANU was time-wise a detour on our long road to
Independence.

The unexpected result had taught Western imperialism a
lesson. It shattered its manic assumptions that one could orchestrate and
manipulate an election, even if the people are allowed to cast a secret vote
at the ballot. Without major intimidation the "povo" used the weapon of an
electoral process, by voting for the cock (the symbol for Mugabe's ZANU),
and not the archbishop (Abel Muzorewa, who was considered the blue-eyed boy
of the West). The people knew what they wanted: a government of their own
choice, which they had reasons to believe would represent their
interests.

Almost three decades later, 18 years into Namibian
Independence, we have to face the sobering realities: Mugabe and his loyal
clique in ZANU-PF messed it up. By the end of the 1990s they had lost the
"povo".

While they blamed Western imperialism for this, it was in the
first place their own elitist neocolonial project, which betrayed the
liberation gospel and thereby the people. From the start, the new rulers
were not shy of ruthlessly violent practices. Remember the genocidal mass
violence in Matabeleland shortly after Independence
("Gukuhurundi").

Tens of thousands of innocent people were tortured,
maimed, raped, mutilated and slaughtered between 1983 and 1985 by the North
Korean trained Fifth Brigade. Only because being Ndebele they were
considered guilty of being in support of Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU, a competing
liberation movement finally coerced into the ZANU-PF alliance.

With a
few exceptions (notably the Catholic church inside Zimbabwe), those who knew
remained silent and thereby endorsed if not encouraged the perpetrators to
further cultivate their dehumanizing version of "chimurenga" against the
people.

The violent nature of the new elite in control over the state
displayed similar features to the mindset of those "Rhodies" they were
fighting against during the "chimurenga". It was the language of coercion
and oppression, which dictated the colonial reality and crept into the
"liberated" society, where it prospered and flourished.

By the time
of Independence, the former victims had turned increasingly into
perpetrators to achieve their goals. More than 20 years later the degree of
violence and brutality with which they treated their fellow Zimbabweans had
exceeded the atrocities under colonial rule and made life for the majority
of the people more miserable than before Independence.

When the
self-enrichment schemes of the new elite alienated its members and their
beneficiaries more and more from the "povo", they blamed Western imperialism
for the deterioration of legitimate rule and the erosion of credibility. But
the anti-imperialist rhetoric, which became an opportunistic, populist
effort to cover up their own failures, was merely a smoke screen.

It
worked for many among those who were not at the receiving end of the
government's policy at home - those who could afford to identify with the
pseudo-alternative discourse promoted by Mugabe at a time when he had
already lost the confidence and support of his very own people.

In
contrast to these privileged outsiders, who could cheer to the misleading
tune without consequence for themselves, those who were supposed to benefit
from the fruits of Independence now fled their home country in the millions.
More than ever before under colonial rule have meanwhile ended in exile and
wait for the time to return. That is in itself an outrageous
scandal.

After 20 years under Mugabe's ZANU-PF, Zimbabweans moved away in
ever growing numbers from the liberation movement in power. Manipulated
elections could not cover up the realities that Mugabe had lost the
"povo".

Not because of an imperialist conspiracy, which sought to
undermine a nationalist government challenging the West. But because those
who pretend to uphold the banner of anti-imperialism had in actual fact
betrayed the very same people whose interests they claimed to
represent.

As a matter of fact, the people did not even count any longer.
As Mugabe stated just ahead of the scheduled runoff presidential vote to a
group of businessmen in Bulawayo: "Only God, who appointed me, will remove
me." -

The voice and vote of the "povo" had been eliminated from the
justification of executing power.

In an act of betrayal, the
Zimbabwean sell-outs posed as truthful revolutionaries, while they served
foremost their own narrow class interests.

Operation "Murambatsvina"
(meaning "clean out the rubbish" or "sweep out the dirt") destroyed in a
large-scale operation during 2005 systematically the shacks of the urban
dwellers, while Mugabe and his clan lived in the luxury of palaces. The
poorest were even robbed of what was left to them.

The derogatory term,
in which reference was made to the tens of thousand of marginalized, as if
they would be vermin, speaks for itself. This was the arrogance of power,
alienated from the masses. The same masses who once formed the basis for a
successful struggle against the minority rule in control if not over the
people, then at least over the state power and its repressive military and
police apparatus.

How similar is the situation today. Again an estranged
minority maintains rule by all means and at all costs over a majority
yearning for change. Only that the minority regime is not foreign. The
"intimate enemy", as the Indian post-colonial theorist Ashis Nandy termed
it, is born and bred under colonialism and socialized in a colonial context
and its terms, no matter how much it poses as its alternative. It comes from
the belly of the beast.

It speaks the same language of power. It shows
the same disrespect for human rights and democracy. It documents that the
colonial legacy is not yet defeated. Imperialism, as the ultimate irony of
the story, lives on in the pseudo-anti-imperialist postures of the regime,
which has lost the people but tries to compensate for this by claiming to
challenge imperialism.

If the project of liberation from foreign rule was
no more than mere lip service to cover up a neo-colonial elite project, we
need to position ourselves in no uncertain terms in opposition to such
betrayal. We need to re-define not our notion of solidarity, but have to
remain faithful and loyal to the same values, for which we supported the
seizure of power by Mugabe and his comrades.

It is not us who turn
our back to solidarity, by taking the ZANU-PF regime to task and deny it any
rightful claim to a continued existence. It is the words and deeds of the
ZANU-PF regime, which show that they have lost any moral claim to any form
of recognition and support.

This does not mean that we end up as
bedfellows to the Blairs, Browns, Bush's and Co., as long as we continue to
condemn in no uncertain terms their double talk, their Guantanamo Bays,
their invasions, their inherent racist immigration policies, their state
terror dubbed as "war against terror", their hegemonic global
projects.

We have little to nothing in common with them, even though we
criticize like they do in certain cases the same violation of fundamental
human values. Our motives are different. But if we compromise on this, we
compromise our values and end up as bedfellows to the Mugabes. This cannot
be the alternative.

Our position to Zimbabwe should be guided by our
commitment to true liberation, which embodies a democratic, human rights
oriented culture within a socio-economic system seeking to at least reduce
(if not to eliminate) the indecent proportions of inequality. The struggle
for political self-determination was a struggle for emancipation also in
economic terms. It was a struggle for human dignity shared by
all.

Those who deny such human dignity to others, often for their own
selfish interests and gains, forfeit any claim to support. If we continue to
back them, or at least indirectly continue to allow them to literally get
away with murder by remaining evasive or silent, we betray our own values
and people. We betray our own project of liberation, which is one in no
isolation from other people. It is a project, which applies to all people
everywhere.

Imperialists the world over and in all colours and shades
try to exploit the contradictions and conflicts we seek to come to terms
with for their own gains. We have to live with this challenge, even if it
means that we need to part with old companions. We do have to part because
we have not given up the commitment and determination to contribute to a
better future for more people. Because we remain convinced that this is the
way forward, instead of compromising with the class interests of a new
elite, which continues to exploit and terrorize the people just as the
colonial masters of the past did.

It should not be the pigmentation,
which ultimately decides over loyalties and common bonds. It should be the
shared values and norms to pursue freedom, equality and dignity for as many
people as possible with the aim to ever increase their numbers. If this
means to part with some old friends, it also means at times to re-join the
"povo". The wretched of the earth are entitled to our empathy, our
identification, our solidarity. - "A luta continua" should never be accepted
as a translation into "the looting continues", as the East African scholar
activist Firoze Manji warned already a couple of years ago at a Southern
African conference in Windhoek.

Otherwise we sacrifice our own
credibility and legitimacy, and betray the very same values that motivated
our struggle and the sacrifices of so many. As people, we deserve better.
And political representatives of the people, who care about integrity,
legitimacy and the "povo", should learn from Zimbabwe and the writing on the
wall.